Minds In the Gutter

Heckscher Park

Geoffrey Dyck and Claudia Ibaven — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:11:56 +0000

Heckscher Park, a mostly concrete space in Bushwick, Brooklyn, was the focus of our team’s project. Distilling some of the park’s key issues – underutilization, poor connectivity, superfluous fencing, few trees, and inefficient storm water drainage – we came up with a series objectives, ultimately leading to three overarching recommendations. We propose that certain measures of (1) ground transformation, (2) roof implementation, and (3) fence adaption, will create a better sense of place, certainly, but also help mitigate CSOs more effectively.

This post was submitted by Geoffrey Dyck and Claudia Ibaven.

The Flushing Community

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:36:06 +0000

This design took us figuratively, proposing a way to get people thinking about stormwater and the pollution it triggers when it matters most. Connecting.nyc seeks to organize a “Flushing Community” (starting with Flushing, Queens…of course) to stop pollution at its source by creating awareness of the consequences of flushing during periods of rain, when combined sewer overflow delivers the contents of your toilet bowl directly to your local waterway.

ARUP – East River Waterfront

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:53:58 +0000

The image depicts a proposed Rainwater Harvesting System for the East River Waterfront development which utilizes runoff from the FDR drive as a resource for irrigation of the park vegetation.

The project client is NYCEDC, and the rendering used as a background is courtesy of SHoP Architects.

ERW RWH.pdf (198 KB)

This post was submitted by Vincent Lee.

ARUP

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:50:17 +0000

Recognizing the city’s capacity for change, ARUP developed a phased approach to bring our stormwater system from passive conveyance into active resource. Starting today, in “Phase 0”, the design rolls out on Chambers St. from Centre St. to Hudson River in lower Manhattan, through Phase 1:Porous City, Phase 2:Botanical City” and finally Phase 3:Shared City.

dlandstudio

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:39:06 +0000

The Sponge Park™ plan from dlandstudio proposes a “strategy of urban stitching, connecting the public and private lands adjacent to the water, to create a continuous esplanade with recreational spaces” spanning the Gowanus Canal. This design calls attention to the complex site control aspect of stormwater management.

Robin Key Landscape Architecture

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:33:11 +0000

Robin Key Landscape Architecture selected Carmine Street as their Minds in the Gutter site for its historical hydrologic significance to the island of Manhattan. An overlay of a 1609 Townsend MacCoun map of Manhattan reveals Minetta Creek as it once flowed south and west along the modern day Carmine Street eventually entering a tidal wetland on the banks of the Hudson River.

Minetta Creek Revisited aims to restore elements of the natural hydrological system that once existed on Carmine Street. Using a matrix of load bearing modular structures that create voids for uncompacted soils below sections of the sidewalk and street, rainwater is captures, filtered and recharged locally.

W Architecture and Landscape Architecture

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:13:37 +0000

W Architecture and Landscape Architecture identifies the underutilized street ends along 25% of the city’s shoreline as an opportunity to apply their prototypical “marine streets”, a new edge typology that would mitigate both the upland urban runoff and climatic tidal surges.

Brooklyn Greenroof

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:10:51 +0000

Brooklyn Greenroof proposes retrofitting a percentage of sidewalks with a permeable patchwork of cobbles and various patterned steel grates. With almost 700 million square feet of sidewalk surface in NYC, modifying just 25% of the city’s sidewalk area could capture three hundred million gallons of water annually.

eDesign Dynamics for Sustainable South Bronx

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:08:17 +0000

In collaboration with Sustainable South Bronx and Drexel University, eDesign Dynamics designed this street tree pit to capture 100 cubic feet of runoff, the quantity of runoff that flows by this gutter during a 0.25 inch storm. Water that has entered the tree pit will spread out virtually unrestricted to cover the entire planting area, allowing for maximum infiltration and evaporation.

NYC Department of Environmental Protection and Gaia Institute

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:03:07 +0000

The Department of Environmental Protection worked with the Gaia Institute on this project as part of a three-year pilot study program to implement and monitor several stormwater management techniques within the Jamaica Bay watershed. The results of this pilot study will be used by the DEP to develop design guidelines.